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Enlightenment Quotes by Tenzin Palmo

40 Enlightenment quotes by Tenzin Palmo

All Enlightenment quotes Tenzin Palmo’s page

Tenzin Palmo teaches that dharma is in every breath, thought and word when done with awareness. She notes that people of many faiths use Buddhist teachings to deepen their own traditions. She also reminds students to stay active, avoid laziness, and keep learning from teachers.

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In Dharma practice, the most important thing is to be very sincere.

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The Buddha himself said, "I still use conceptual thinking, but I'm not formed by it." And that's the Buddha.

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The dharma is here. And the dharma is in your heart. Where else would it be?

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It takes a tremendous amount of merit to meet with the dharma - especially if you have an interest in it.

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To be completely enlightened means that you're a Buddha.I don't speak of enlightenment.

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To be enlightened doesn't mean you end up stupefied and unable to function.

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Buddhism helps us to overcome our endless ego grasping mind to open up to something so much more spacious and genuinely meaningful.

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There are certain people who people think are enlightened. The problem with the word enlightenment is what you mean by it.

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When I was 18 I read a book about Buddhism and, before I was halfway through it I said to my mother,…

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We have met with the dharma. Many of us have met with teachers. We do have some idea of what to do…

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If you've made a lot of negative seeds, and not a lot of positive seeds, even though you meet with the dharma,…

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The purpose of dharma is to help your mind to expand, to grow, to clarify. It should uphold us and create an…

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Many people are benefiting beings, but from a dharma point of view, if you are a dharma practitioner, then the first priority…

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If you're born in the higher realms, then it's too pleasant, and you don't have any incentive to practice. If you're born…

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Obviously the dharma is every breath we take, every thought we think, every word we speak, if we do it with awareness…

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Most of the people I talk to are not going to go off and live in a cave. Why should they? So…

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The dharma is the most precious thing in the world and we should put it at the center of our hearts and…

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I think it would help if, when people are first ordained, they underwent a period of strict training, maybe for several years.…

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We live in a society which is heading in one direction, so it's good to have at least a few friends who…

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The point with Buddhism is that it doesn't just tell you to be good, it tells you how. It doesn't just say,…

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All of the external circumstances and the rude and difficult people we meet, instead of getting angry, upset, or frustrated, we see…

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All the other religions I had ever read about dealt with the idea of God, and your relationship with God. Buddhism is…

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When one has a decisive realization of the inherent nature of the mind, which has no ego, it has no sense of…

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Most of the spiritual traditions were very theistic and the idea of an external god pulling the strings didn't resonate with me.…

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Let's consider: at the time of the Buddha, when he attained enlightenment, according to the old texts, in the first watch of…

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The real spiritual power is enabling beings to realize the nature of the mind. That's the power of Buddha activity.

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I have made a vow to attain Enlightenment in the female form - no matter how many lifetimes it takes

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People get very deep experiences and they think they're enlightened. That's not enlightenment, that's just some realization.

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I think, for East and West, the first thing we need is a good grounding in basic Buddhadharma.

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The Dharma is a very, very special and precious thing. The more you practice it, the more you will realize this.

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Don't be thinking that this lama over there is giving better teachings or that this lama over here is giving more secret…

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If you lose interest in the dharma, then you might be reborn in a place where you are unlikely to meet with…

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Joining the Sangha and renouncing worldly life is necessary in order to devote your whole life and all your energies toward the…

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The internet can be enormously helpful, just like books can, but I don't think it's the be all and end all for…

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Once one has understand what is Buddhadharma, what is not Buddhadharma, and once one has had enough view to see the different…

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From a Buddhist point of view, the first thing to help is yourself, to get your own mind together. And to really…

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Some students went to Milarepa and said, we should stop living in caves and meditating because we should go out and help…

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Everyone should not be ordained, but for those who really feel that the only thing that matters in this world is the…

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I know many Catholic priests and nuns who use the Buddhist teachings to become better Catholics, and Jews who use them to…

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We have to know what is Buddhadharma and what is not Buddhadharma. It needn't go on forever. You don't have to spend…

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More by Tenzin Palmo

All of us are playing roles, and there's nothing wrong with playing roles because we have to live in this world - the problem…

The very best players, when they are practicing, put everything they've got into it. But then they leave it for a while. And it's…

I really don't know what I could teach and don't really plan to teach.

If you go to any nunnery and ask them what the main obstacle is, they'll always say low self-esteem and lack of confidence. It…

To really be of benefit to others as the Buddha always taught, we ourselves must first get out of the swamp. One of the…

For any practice to work, the mind which is meditating on the object must merge. Often they are facing each other. One has to…

I've often said that the seventh paramita should be a sense of humor, so we don't take ourselves too seriously.

If you take the time to study how to be a doctor and how to use your scalpel and your medicine, then there are…

If we want to be musicians, dancers or sportspeople, we can download a certain amount and watch DVDs and read books, but in the…

Realization is wonderful, but you have to expand it until there's not a single defilement left in the mind and the mind is completely…

It's not a matter of how much you know or can define, or how many millions of mantras or thousands of prostrations you have…

We have compassion because of the incredible pain and suffering which we as unenlightened beings cause to ourselves and all others through our ignorance.…

When I look back I can think that of course I've been lazy and haven't practiced as much as I could have and have…

We do have the precious opportunity of this human life.

I think the problem with Western students is they're very ambitious.